Baseball loses its Prince

Fox Sports reporter Ken Rosenthal sent a tweet this morning that caught baseball off guard, "Prince Fielder’s career appears over."  Prince had recently went under the knife for a neck injury for the second time in two years and had not yet been cleared to return to the diamond.

Fielder burst into the big leagues in the spring of 2006, but he had an impact on the game much before that.

Prince’s dad, Cecil, was a mainstay in Detroit and brought a young Prince up around the game of baseball. Part of Prince’s lore is his ability to hit a home run in the original Tiger Stadium. Oh yeah, and he was only 12 years old. That was only the beginning. Prince and Cecil are the first and only father/son combo to each hit 50 home runs in a season.

Prince and another young stud, Ryan Braun, formed a duo that most teams dream about. Both players had good to great years for the five seasons they played together at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Prince led the team in power categories and was supported by the rest of his teammates on their way to two playoff appearances and relevance across the game of baseball. 

At one point, he played 547 consecutive games with his streak ending in 2014 due to a neck injury. To that point, he has played all 162 games in four different seasons and played in 157 or more games in every season until his season ending neck surgery in 2014. He added 158 to his total of games played in 2015. 

Prince holds the Brewers record for best OPS and has the most home runs, RBI’s, walks, and intentional walks in a season. Prince has made the All-Star team six times in his 10 years as a consistent player in the majors. He has three Silver Slugger awards and has gotten his love in the MVP discussion, but was never able to quite seal the deal – he finished third on two separate occasions and never higher than that.  He is also one of three players who have won multiple Home Run Derby’s, the others being Ken Griffey Jr. and Yoenis Cespedes. 

Fielder did make it to a World Series with the Detroit Tigers in 2012, however they lost to the San Francisco Giants as teams typically do when they play the Giants in the World Series. Fielder had one hit in the series against the Giants and finished with a batting average of .071. Fielder's career postseason batting average is .189. 

For all the bravado and talent Fielder has, he never achieved the ultimate goal of most athletes - winning a championship. In 2007, Prince had mentioned he wanted to hit 52 home runs in a season so he could have one more than his estranged father, but in an ironic twist of fate, Prince will end his career with 319 home runs, the exact number of home runs his father hit in 1990. 

Fielder had a smile that could light up a room and the stories about him contribute to his legacy in a way that is almost equal to his stat line.  Whether he was in a scuffle with players from another team or fighting with pitchers on his on because they didn’t stay in the dugout to cheer on the team after being pulled, you never knew what you were going to get with Prince. He was wild and fun, his home run celebrations were fantastic, and he will look back on his time in the majors with a smile on his face. Prince was given a chance to live his dream and he did so, unashamedly. Prince isn’t the loser in this scenario, but MLB and the fans most certainly are.